With the midterm elections only days away, the pressure of Democrats probably suffering major losses apparently caused New York representative Charlie Rangel to make a scary assertion on Thursday that some Republicans “believe that slavery isn't over, and they won the Civil War.”
During a panel discussion on the Cable News Network This Hour program on Halloween morning, CNN analyst and commentator Elzie "LZ" Granderson was just as blunt in his reply: “If you think what he said is true, then I’m just going to tell you the truth: 'You’re an idiot!'” He continued by stating “slavery, and that time period, does not exist today!”
The controversy began when Rangel stated at a rally in New York City:
We have to win, and we're going to be able to send a national message. … And the thing is, everything we believe in, everything we believe in they hate! They don’t disagree, they hate!
They think that if you didn’t come from Europe 30 years ago, we shouldn’t have immigration! Some of them believe that slavery isn’t over, and that they won the Civil War!
Co-host John Berman then asked Granderson what he thought of those remarks. The black commentator responded that Rangel has “served our country in the military, he's been a strong voice for the African-American community over the decades, but I’m trying to figure out why is he even still in office.”
He continued that Rangel's “been busted on 11 counts of ethics violations,” and “the type of things that he’s doing right now -- saying those kinds of things are absolutely ridiculous and have no place in politics. It has no place in the Democratic Party!”
“And if you think what he says is true, then I’m just going to tell you the truth: 'You’re an idiot!'” he declared. “Because slavery, and that time period, does not exist today!”
Granderson continued by declaring: “I’m sick of people comparing president Obama to Hitler and people comparing the GOP to racists back in slavery times. It just isn’t true.”
The other member of the panel -- Republican strategist Anna Navarro -- agreed, saying: “You know, my problem is that I just have a hard time taking anything Charlie Rangel says with any seriousness. This is a guy who's been totally discredited.”
Rangel “has been in Congress since dinosaurs roamed the Earth,” she joked; “frankly, since before I was born.”
Navarro referred to the fact that Rangel was stripped of his chairmanship of the important Ways and Means Committee, and “President Obama wouldn't even endorse him in a heated Democrat primary.”
“I question the sanity of the people that continue voting for him,” she claimed, and “also, I think there's a lot of Democrats that wish he weren't there because he does and says things that are embarrassing to their party and to our country, frankly.”
“He has no business saying these kinds of irresponsible comments, but my expectations of him are so low” that “I have a hard time even reacting” to his remarks because that's “Charlie Rangel being Charlie Rangel.”
Co-anchor Michaela Pereira claimed that “given the tone and the conversation that has been going on in this country for some time,” “when we see what's going on in Ferguson, we see what's going on in other parts of the country, does this seem to be a productive thing to be saying?” she asked Granderson.
“You know, I'm probably going to get a lot of flak from this in social media, and quite frankly, I don't care because it needs to be said,” he replied. “We often talk openly about the different generational views when it comes to same-sex marriage and how we cavalierly say: 'As the older generation dies off, so does that hatred and perspective.'”
“The same thing needs to be said about race,” the commentator said. “I'm not saying the people need to die off,” he stressed, but if you’re still saying, “‘nothing has changed in society,’ and we have an African-American president in the White House, then I just don’t know what to say to you rationally to get you to change your mind.”
“That's not to say that … the remnants of segregation and Jim Crow laws do not still exist, but you cannot say that we're on the same exact playing field or level as a slave,” Granderson concluded.
One point that wasn't made during the discussion is the fact that the North did indeed win the Civil War. Let's hope Rangel's policies are not as spooky as his faulty knowledge of American history.
